Matching Funds Request

The Provost's Office is committed to fostering the development of exciting UW collaborative research programs, especially those that are multidisciplinary, such as Centers, Institutes and Consortia. In collaboration with Departments and Schools/Colleges, the University endeavors to provide the institutional support that is often necessary or even required, to successfully compete for funds for multidisciplinary, multi-investigator, research programs. Although the Provost would like to be able to support every request for institutional support, the resources available are of course limited, and thus it is necessary to establish guidelines that will help to ensure that these scarce resources are allocated in a fair, transparent and productive manner.

Purpose

The following guidelines are intended to assist investigators in making requests for institutional support for large multidisciplinary grant applications.

Persons Affected

• All Principal Investigators (P.I.s) and their respective Dean's or Chair's office making a Matching Funds Request.
• Vice Provost for Research and the Office of Research administrative staff
• Planning and Budgeting

Policy

Typically, matching funds in the form of direct financial contributions and/or salary cost-sharing are provided only in clear instances where it is required by a funding agency, or necessary to be competitively successful. The department Chair can assist with determining whether a proposal meets the requirements for receiving cost-share funding.

• Requests should be for items that contribute to infrastructure (equipment, core expertise). Salary and expendables may be supported if they are clearly essential to support the administrative infrastructure for the funded work, but are not allowable within the costing rules of the funding program. Salary requests must also include the cost of the associated benefits.
• Matching funds requests to the Provost's Office should illustrate how the proposed program addresses the following criteria:
  • Is high-impact, potentially transformational to a field or discipline at the national or international level
  • Crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries (usually involves multiple schools/colleges) with broad impact at UW
  • Is potentially transforming to a critical area at UW
  • Seeds a new effort with strong potential to excel at UW
  • Integrates research and education (facilitates classroom instruction, graduate research training, and/or community outreach)
  • Creates new opportunities (likelihood of fostering additional research opportunities and funding)
  • General guidelines for funding match requests from the Provost's Research Initiative Fund in the Office of Research require that 2/3 of the overall match be funded by the departments and/or College or School of the PI and participating faculty. Proposals involving key investigators from several departments generally require match from each department and college represented.
  • Proposals without department or college support will not be considered.

Definitions

Provost Research Initiative Matching Funds Request Form

PDF form available on the Office of Research Matching Funds web page that must be completed, signed and sent to the Vice Provost for Research and Fiscal Specialist for approval and processing.

Commitment Letter

This letter provides the details of the match commitment, as well as an official reference number to be used by the Dean's office when claiming the funds through BGT. A hard copy of this signed memorandum will be mailed to the School/College Dean and an e-mail with attached signed commitment letter by the Vice Provost will be sent to School/College Dean, P.I.(s), Planning and Budgeting, and the Department Administrator. This will serves as the formal notification from the Provost Research Initiative Award to all concerned.

Budget Revision Request (BRR)

The official request sent from the school/college administrator to Planning and Budgeting to transfer funds.

eGC1

The Electronic GC1 (eGC1) is the compliance form that is attached to all grants and contracts for routing and approval on campus before going to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). Only authorized users can access the system containing eGC1s.

Responsibilities

• The Vice Provost for Research is responsible for approving matching funds requests and issuing a formal commitment letter.
• The P.I.(s) is responsible for completing and submitting a Provost Research Initiative Matching Funds Request form to the Dean/Chair's office for approval.
• The Dean/Chair's office is responsible for approving Provost Research Initiative Matching Funds Request form and sending the completed forms to the Vice Provost for Research and OR Fiscal Specialist. The Dean/Chair's office is also responsible for requesting exceptions and/or extensions as needed.
• The School/College Administrator is responsible for preparing a Budget Revision Request (BRR) for Planning and Budgeting to transfer funds.
• Planning and Budgeting is responsible for transferring money upon receiving a Budget Revision Request (BRR) from a School/College Administrator.

Procedures

• P.I. discusses matching request, rationale, and overall strategy with Department Chair(s), and secure Departmental commitment(s). Typically, requests are for direct cost allocations such as equipment, supplies or salary off-set (cost-sharing). Commitments for space or access to specialized facilities will normally be dealt with at the Department and/or School/College level.
• Department Chair works with Dean's office to develop the final match request. If multiple Dean's Offices are involved, the PI's Dean's Office takes the lead to coordinate the request. In most cases, an Associate Dean, Divisional Dean, or Vice Dean has already been designated as the contact person in each Dean's Office.The Vice Provost for Research is responsible for approving matching funds requests and issuing a formal commitment letter.
• Dean's office makes a formal match request by completing (or having the PI/administrative staff complete) the Provost Research Initiative Matching Funds Request form and submitting it via email to the Vice Provost for Research. Requests must be made through a Dean's office. Requests coming directly from the department or PI will not be considered. In the case of interdisciplinary commitment approvals/requests, the primary department will make the request, and use the second optional page of the Provost Research Initiative Fund Matching Request form for other departments' approvals.
• Requests should be made well in advance (e.g., at least 6-8 weeks) of the Agency funding deadline so that the grant budgets can accurately reflect the agreed-upon level of institutional support.
• Approval of requests will be officially documented through an Office of Research commitment letter signed by the Vice Provost for Research. This letter provides the details of the match commitment, as well as an official reference number to be used by the Dean's office when claiming the funds through BGT. A hard copy of this signed memorandum will be mailed to the School/College Dean and an e-mail with attached signed commitment letter by the Vice Provost will be sent to School/College Dean, P.I.(s), Planning and Budgeting, and the Department Administrator. This will serves as the formal notification from the Provost Research Initiative Award to all concerned.
• Attach a PDF of the Commitment Letter to the “Attachments and Routing Questions” section of the eGC1 when submitting for approvals.
• Generally, the total level of institutional support (Department, School/College, and Provost's Office) requested should be commensurate with the size of the grant, and, is normally only provided for grants or contracts that pay the full indirect cost rate.
• Receipt of the matching request is contingent upon receipt of the grant award, and may be ‘pro-rated' to the size of the award if it is less than initially requested.
• When the award notice is received, the PI should arrange for the sponsoring Dean's Office to claim the award amount, using the assigned reference number, through BGT. Arrangements will be made to transfer funds to an appropriate 74 budget in the sponsoring Department, School or College. Proper accounting and verification that University cost sharing commitments have been met is the responsibility of the PI and his/her department.